Vintage Sounds From Yesteryear Are Being Curated By An Online Museum

Your familiarity with sounds like the plunk of typewriter keys, the buzz of a 56k modem, or the whir of a rotary-dial phone, probably depends on your age. Those sounds, made by outdated objects that have faded from our collective memory are being cataloged by a project called ‘Conserve the Sound.’

It’s “an online museum for vanishing and endangered sounds,” according to a description on the project’s website. Most of them are vintage pieces of technology, but the sound of a foldable city map and a window crank handle for a car have also been included.

The project was started by Daniel Chun and Jan Derksen, who own a media agency in Germany. Included in this museum of soon-to-be-forgotten sounds are items from the early 1900s up through the 2000s. To sample these sounds, visit Conserve the Sound’s website: https://www.conservethesound.de/en/category/sound-en